I suggest getting rid of the 870 and get an Rem 1187 or a Mossy 935 or some other semi auto. I shoot the 3.5's out of my 870 which came with the R3 recoil pad and I didn't think it was all that bad. Bench shooting aka patterning a shotgun is the as bad as it will get when dealing with recoil. Not everyone is tolerable to recoil either.